What happened on Ghostwatch?

The TV movie was a horror mockumentary, presented in the style of a live news report.

Over the course of an hour and a half viewers watched a horror story unfold in a documentary style.

It involved BBC reporters, including Sarah Greene, performing a live, on-air investigation of a house in Northolt, Greater London, where poltergeist activity was taking place.

The show was hosted by Michael Parkinson from a BBC studio, where he talked to “experts” and kept going “live” to the house.

Through revealing footage and interviews with neighbours and the family living there, the show revealed the existence of a malevolent ghost nicknamed Pipes (the children in the house had asked their mother about noises heard, and she said it was the pipes, hence the name).

As the programme proceeded, viewers learned that Pipes was the spirit of a psychologically disturbed man called Raymond Tunstall.

In the course of the programme Pipes made various manifestations, even possessing one of the young girls who lived in the house.

Over 90 minutes, Pipes became more bold and terrifying, until, at the end, the frightened reporters realise that the programme itself has been acting as a sort of “national séance” through which Pipes was gaining horrific power.

Finally, the spirit unleashed its power to the fullest extent, dragging presenter Sarah Greene out of sight behind a door and then escaping to unleash poltergeist activity throughout the country.

He then took control of the BBC studios and transmitter network, using the Ghostwatch studio as a focal point and possessing Michael Parkinson in the process.

What was the controversy surrounding Ghostwatch?

Although under the BBC drama banner, its documentary and “live TV” style, led many viewers to believe the events were real, causing viewers to be terrified.

During and following its first and only UK TV broadcast, the show attracted a considerable furore, resulting in an estimated 30,000 calls to the BBC switchboard in a single hour.

The show even had a number for viewers to call if they were experiencing anything supernatural in their homes – viewers believed this to be a real phone line, but upon calling it, they were told by a recorded message that the show was fictional.

But to make it look “real” Mike Smith was seen answering “calls from viewers” who also were experiencing ghosts in their houses – these weren’t real.

The BBC was besieged with phone calls from irate and frightened viewers.

The show was criticised in the press for the disturbing nature of some scenes, such as Sarah Greene’s final scene where she is locked in an under-stairs cupboard with the howling ghost, and Michael Parkisnon’s eerie possession scene.

They found that Ghostwatch was excessively distressing and graphic, and stated that “the presence in the programme of presenters familiar from children’s programs… took some parents off-guard in deciding whether their children could continue to view.”

Indeed, a 1994 report in the British Medical Journal detailed several cases of children suffering from post-traumatic stress in the wake of the program.

“None of us thought we were creating something that would be one of TV’s most remembered programs,” said Parkinson in an interview more than 20 years after Ghostwatch aired.

“It was a simple ghost story based on a fairly ordinary premise that there’s a show on television and things start to go wrong. It was only when I saw it back that I realised it had a certain kind of power.”

The show attracted 30,000 complaints in an hour as people thought it was real

Can I watch Ghostwatch?

The fallout from Ghostwatch was swift: The BBC apologised and has never aired it again on UK television, and it remained officially unreleased until an eventual DVD release in 2002.

Since then, its underground cult status has grown, with fans holding special Ghostwatch screenings each Halloween.

Now, a US horror, thriller and supernatural streaming service called Shudder has acquired the rights to Ghostwatch – meaning a whole new generation of horror fans will be able to see what the fuss is about for themselves.